manchot66

@@avdocatwork Thanks, man. I'm having the same issue with raw finger tips on those power chord slides. I think my ham-fisted playing doesn't help either. I'm constantly telling myself to relax my fret hand, but I've got this natural feeling that I have to press hard on the strings. Gotta break these bad habits. Can't wait to get my amp and try this song.

Finished up the lead part for Iron Man if anybody would like to give it a shot. Nearly done on bass, just need to isolate a couple parts that are hard to hear and then it will be good to go, I hope. This song makes me feel ten feet tall when I play it, even though the playing is shitty. Black Sabbath - Iron Man v0.1 Lead Only

@@Tank-OR I wish I could get together with ya, but my health is real up and down from day to day. I wouldn't want you to show up and I'd be a zombie. Thanks for the invite, though. If I improve in the near future, I'm surely down for it. There's some really nice parts along the border. The land gets a little hilly and there's lots of little lakes up there. Down here it's flat and concrete. And the weather here is always crappy, or about to be crappy.

@@jbroch I played the hell out of Duke and Abacab as a kid. That big sound Collins puts up on drums is classic. I think they're very well written songs even without Gabriel, obviously in a less prog rock manner. That was some rockin' shit in fifth grade. Still have both those albums on my mp3 player.

@@Aludog @@avdocatwork @@Tank-OR @@jbroch That's awesome you guys are all getting together. The great part is if we were all on a political website, we'd probably all want to kill each other, but since it's about music, everybody gets along. It's nice to see people act like normal humans. The world needs more of that. Okay, I'm done philosophizing. P.S. I thought "philosophizing" was a made up word people used to sound funny, but it's actually a real word. Another 'duh' moment for me.

Best wishes to you guys. Glad to hear you're safe. It's a shame to have to discuss it all.

@@jbroch I forgot about my prog rock influences. We had all the mandatory King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Yes, etc. But my all time favorite prog rock album is The Lamb Lies Down. I had the beige double cassette version as a kid and I wore those fuckers out. That album is still on my top 5 best of all time. What would have been if Gabriel didn't leave when they were at the top of their game?

@@jbroch Sorry to hear about the Lyme's Disease. I know it can be a real bitch. Remember, we're here for moral support and bad guitar playing. Take 'er easy, dude!

@@avdocatwork Thanks for the kind words. I'll have to check out the versions of War Pigs and Sweet Leaf (cough, cough) that are posted to see how they are. Iron Man was pretty bad and needed some love. I will probably redo the other two any way because I'm a perfectionist and don't have a choice. I grew up with two older brothers who only listened to rock and metal, so at 5 years old, I was playing the Paranoid album over and over, especially Iron Man. The albums I grew up with were Queen, Zep, Sabbath, UFO, Iron Maiden, The Who, Dio, Rainbow, Ozzy, etc. I guess I should be glad I didn't have older sisters or I'd be jamming to the Carpenters right now.

This is what we call healthy eating in Chicago. No, that's not deep dish. Mmmmmmm .... http://i.imgur.com/5xzx1IC.png Dogs waiting for a slice to hit the floor: http://i.imgur.com/UIlSHd0.png http://i.imgur.com/N1gG3I3.png

@@avdocatwork Hey, Terry, Finished up on the guitar a few days ago, but I've been enjoying playing it so much, I forgot to post a pic. Still have to solder in the new pots, but I'll save that for a rainy day. Ended up with new bridge, toggle switch, locking tuners, pickups, and some black and gold speed knobs. Really like the new Duncan pickups. The neck pickup, called the Jazz, is the first one I've ever had that doesn't sound like someone threw a blanket over the speaker. The neck is great for classic rock. It sounds like an older Les Paul - a little muted, but still has some crunchy bite. The bridge pickup, JB model, is really buzzy. Been playing some Ozzy and Deep Purple using this pickup and it sounds awesome. The pickups all so blend well together. You can dial each one in to sound like one awesome tone. My soldering and install job is still holding up. Surprised it wasn't too hard to do. Working on my own version of Iron Man right now. What a great tune to play. Will put it up here when I polish it up. Here's the finished product (for now), protected by the alien-headed Queen Nefertiti, guardian of the Dum Dum lollipops: http://i.imgur.com/VU9eWSP.jpg

@@avdocatwork Played Dreams lead and rhythm. Sounds good and everything seems to be on. Good finger stretching exercise on the rhythm chords.

@@avdocatwork Seen the Allman's a half dozen times. Always great concerts. For some odd reason, girls like to spin around in circles at their concerts. Must have something to do with the acid. Will play tonight.

@@avdocatwork Played the Allman's Melissa. In the lead, there are a couple of riffs where one or two notes were out of time. One was toward the middle and another right before the end that I remember. Rhythm looks really good. I'll get to some other tunes later today, Sandman and ripcord's Thorogood.

Hell, yeah. Nobody buys better gifts for yourself than you can, I always say.

@@avdocatwork Hey Terry, Radar looks like you guys are getting hit hard with the weather. The plains states are tornado central right now. Hope you guys are safe. Finally got the guitar set up properly, still waiting on upgrade parts though and will have to re-set up. Adjusted the truss rod and bridge and raised the pickups. From the research I did, I didn't think I was going to like the Dimarzio pickups that came with the guitar. And they sounded like crap when I tried them with the guitar right out of the box. Now they sound awesome. High output with great crunch and distortion. Played some classic rock and some hard rock and they nailed both. On a good amp set up, they sound like they're teetering on the edge of breaking into a howl. Canceled the order for the new pickups. Lucky they didn't send them out yesterday. I was going to tell you I'd have pickups and a set of 3+3 Grover tuners for your guitar builds, but now it looks like it's just tuners. They are these ones in chrome: https://www.grotro.com/Grover/ROTOMATICS/d150fec8-4cb7-46fe-843f-e06e90703a32/Original-Rotomatics-102-Series. If you need them, let me know and I'll pack them up and ship them to you.

@@Aludog Happy birthday, dude!

Hey guys, Sorry I haven't played any tunes. Decided to do some modifying and hot rodding on this guitar before I get going for good. Got a whole bunch of crap on the way in the mail. I ordered some Seymour Duncan pickups to replace the Dimarzios, some new pots and switches, locking tuners, a new bridge, and some gold screws to replace the chrome ones so they're all gold. Going to give install and soldering a shot. If I can't handle it, I will throw a temper tantrum and then take it to my local guitar shop and have them laugh at me. Will post some pics when I get this bad boy set up (or burnt to ashes).

@@A51Ripcord Can't wait to try Thorogood out, hopefully tomorrow with new guitar. Open G is a fun tuning, especially with the slide. You can strum all six strings and slide and it sounds awesome. I hope those tones sound good; I made those up a long time ago. I'm finding some of the tones I made with my first guitar are way over modulated when I use a guitar with better, hotter pickups. Haven't played in almost a month and I'm getting the itch really bad. I'm jonesin' here!

@@avdocatwork No ZZ Top, that sucks. I've been to half a dozen Buffett concerts and could never remember hearing any songs by the end of the night. I saw lots of girls flashing boobies, which isn't so bad, but it's not ZZ. New guitar showing up Wednesday. What folly awaits, we'll soon know. Praying to the guitar gods for quality craftsmanship, and some faster fingers.

@@avdocatwork Hope you've been saving your pennies. http://www.guitarplayer.com/artists/1013/stevie-ray-vaughans-first-professional-guitar-goes-to-auction-this-saturday/58102

@@avdocatwork Thanks, dude. I'm making a very good case for not buying a guitar sight unseen. If the prices weren't so cheap on the internet, I wouldn't even consider it. What I can't figure out is why the company selling the guitar wouldn't at least look at it before they ship it. It costs $50 shipping each way to California via Fedex and they've paid for 3 shipments so far plus a fourth coming very soon. It seems checking if the guitar is the correct item or not a piece of shit before sending them out would save them some serious coin. I'm considering making the 32 hour drive to San Diego to hit someone over the head with this guitar. P.S. Changed my profile pic back to Einstein for good luck. Ordered three guitars with that pic and they were all beautiful. Come on, Albert! P.S.S. First Dean I ordered and returned due to bad neck has been relisted by seller with no mention of anything wrong with it. What a scumbag.

@@A51Ripcord I'm at the point where I'm ready to go my local guitar shop and beg for a normal guitar. We've got a really good local guitar shop that I would like to give the business, but the Schenker Dean was $200 more from them. I was really surprised; all the other Deans I've seen or briefly held before I shipped them back were top notch looking guitars. And I've been spoiled with some great work on my Epi's and DBZ (all which cost less than this guitar). Here's the pics of this guitars boo-boos: http://i.imgur.com/yx0fZ3S.jpg http://i.imgur.com/DRHDtY3.jpg http://i.imgur.com/jfebq8I.jpg http://i.imgur.com/73RzvSr.jpg http://i.imgur.com/LY0biwF.jpg http://i.imgur.com/sBFXHHx.jpg http://i.imgur.com/yQ3Fjin.jpg http://i.imgur.com/IZSRdBw.jpg

Just received the third guitar in the last three weeks in the mail today. Third times a charm, my ass. First guitar was screwed, second guitar was wrong model, and the third guitar has the worst fit and finish I've ever seen on a new guitar before. Can't believe Dean would inspect this guitar and give it the okay to sell. I was expecting a hell of a lot better from them for a mid priced guitar. The finish is pitted, the binding looks like magic marker done by a child, there's a dent in the headstock, and someone took a grinder to the fretboard and its binding for some reason, maybe trying to sand the frets? The finish is cracked and peeling where they grinded off the fretboard and on to the binding, as well as looking like shit. They also sprayed the guitar with the nut on, so that's starting to peel off the nut and eventually the neck and headstock. Didn't even play it, just too disappointed. I'm on my fourth guitar ordered off the internet and this is the first problem I've ran into. I'm thinking of buying from a store from now on, so at least you've got someone close to take your problem to. Sick of mailing guitars all over the United States. Going to take some pics, will post if anybody's interested in seeing this poor debacle of an instrument. I feel most sorry for the poor tree that had to end up as a crappy guitar. Done bitching for now, hopefully.

@@avdocatwork There's a famous story of the Cup at Phil Anselmo's (Pantera front man) house after the Stars won it. Apparently, Guy Carbonneau tried to throw the Cup into the pool from a second story balcony. He missed and it bounced on the concrete leaving it all smashed up. Oops.